Radiohead and Crowded House collective bring their 7 Worlds Collide project to the UK

Crowded House‘s Neil Finn teamed up with Radiohead members Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway and Wilco‘s Glenn Kotche and John Stirratt last night (August 11) during a gig at intimate Camden venue Dingwalls.

The collective had brought their 7 Worlds Collide project to London to perform a 16-song set that saw them air tracks from their forthcoming album ‘The Sun Came Out’ (released on August 31), as well as a cover of The Beatles‘ ‘Something’.

With bandmembers swapping instruments accordingly throughout the set, the makeshift group aired tracks written by other 7 Worlds Collide members including Johnny Marr and Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy.

Before playing the Marr and Tweedy-penned ‘Too Blue’, Finn paid tribute to his fellow musicians, saying: “It’s a huge, huge privilege to be up here playing with these guys tonight.”

The gig also saw Radiohead‘s Phil Selway sing two songs – ‘The Ties That Bind Us’ and ‘The Witching Hour’. Selway was in confident mood as he took to the front of the stage, receiving one of the biggest crowd reactions of the night as he stepped up to sing ‘The Ties That Bind Us’.

The buoyant mood of the gig was sealed when the band broke off from performing tracks from ‘The Sun Came Out’ to play a celebratory cover of The Beatles‘ ‘Something’, followed by Crowded House hits ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ and ‘Weather With You’.

Before playing the latter, Finn instructed the audience to join in with the singing, saying: “Let’s have some harmonies.”

Speaking to NME.COM after the gig, Finn hailed the intimate venue.

“It was really sweaty out there, but that’s exactly what you want from this sort of event. It covers a lot of the cracks and it gets people involved,” he said.

O’Brien was equally enthusiastic, despite telling NME.COM that the band had barely rehearsed for the gig.

“I enjoyed it – it was kind of flying by the seat of your pants, but it was good! There was no rehearsal at all…well, there was a bit last week with acoustic guitars, next to the pool, that’s it,” he said. “The thing is, is to carry on playing with these people. The first time [7 Worlds Collide was started by Finn in 2001] it was slightly different, and for me [this time] to be playing with Wilco was a real treat. It’s always nice to make music with good people and to try and make good music.”

Finn added that he wants to get all the other artists involved in 7 Worlds Collide all on one stage together in the near future.

He said: “At some point I do hope that we can gather the whole ensemble and do the 7 Worlds thing, whether it’s twice, or three times, or for two or three weeks – we’re looking for a window of opportunity and we’ll gather again. It’s a community now, really. We’re good friends. If we can do that [the Dingwalls gig] with an afternoon’s rehearsal…if we had two days rehearsal we could probably do something amazing!”

Meanwhile, both O’Brien and Finn paid tribute to Oxfam, who are receiving profits from the 7 Worlds Collide album.

“I think it’s good for the spirit of things. You know, all the publishing from the songs goes to Oxfam, so it’s all done the right way. It’s organic,” O’Brien said.

“They’re political, they’re on they’re ground, but they’re non-religious [which] is a really big part of it for me,” added Finn. “I think they’re not pushing god on anybody, and there’s a humanity at the heart of it.”

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